The lyrics

Q: What does "Heavy 33" mean?

A: The name was reportedly taken from an airline baggage label


Q: Who are "C.D." and "Jimmy Jazz"?

A: French composer Claude Debussy and Irish author James Joyce


Q: Who is Harry Noryb?

A: Graeme says: "Noryb is Byron spelt backwards and Harry refers to the character (Harold) in one of his major poems. I was painting the picture in the lyric of the classic outsider. Images of imigrants, stateless people. You can feel that way in your own country. The loner, outsider citizen without a country are the hallmarks of the "Byronic hero" (well Byron himself I guess) so that's why I swiped the reference. But the whole point was to debunk the heroic angle. After all Harry Noryb doesn't sound like a particluarly lofty sort of character. Being an outsider is not heroic, it just is... that was the point I was trying to make."


The music

Q: Will there be any rarities, covers, b-sides, or unreleased material forthcoming?

A: It seems unlikely. According to a 1999 interview with Graeme: "There are a few songs or different versions of songs lying around, but they're all rubbish and I wouldn't consider releasing them to anybody. I never did get the hang of that side of rock & roll marketing (i.e. get the fans hooked then release as much stuff as possible 'cos they will want the complete set of your work and will buy any old crap)... bunch of arse! Basically any songs that never excited me sufficiently got consigned to the trash before they even finished resounding off the guitar let alone get to tape. Reputedly, Brahms wrote dozens of string quartets in his life... published 3 of them... the rest... smoke! Smart man... I admire that."

Q: Are there any Verlaines videos in existence?

A: Graeme says: "Yes, we made lots of those. They are awful, ill-conceived, low-budget things. If God came down on the Day of Judgement and said, "Show me the vids or proceed to hell!" my reply would be "Fuck you sunshine!" Don't have copies of the crap ones. Don't have copies of very many of them come to think of it. Videos... loathsome things, hate them."

At the risk of incurring the wrath of Dr Downes I'll point out that the video for "Death and the Maiden" is currently available on the Flying Nun Very Short Films DVD compilation, and "Bird Dog" on Second Season - Flying Nun DVD II. :)


The band

Q: Where are the members of the Verlaines now? What are they doing?

A: At last check the members, past and present, were still active in the music scene, but mostly on a part-time basis:

Graeme Downes -- Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Rock music at Otago University in Dunedin
Mike Stoodley -- manages the IT networks and IT security for the state owned tv, TVNZ, in Auckland
Jane Dodd -- jewellery designer in Auckland
Greg Cairns -- museum exhibition director in Wellington
Darren Steadman -- runs a boutique wine shop
Paul Winders - primary school teacher


Album covers

Q: What was the inspiration for the cover of the Bird Dog album?

A: Someone once told me that it was inspired by an incident with Graeme's own dog but when I asked he said it was actually his friend Dave's dog, Gonzo, "who wasn't paying attention and fell down a blowhole. Dave had to flag some fishermen to rescue him. Survived but walked funny thereafter." That's the scoop.

The site

Q: Who runs this site? How long has it been on the web?

A: The site was created by me, Blair (aka opiate_smile), in the early 2000s to fill the void left when the first Verlaines site, run by Michael, an American fan and record shop owner, went defunct. It began as a small extension of my personal website to share with friends who were fans of the band, most notably Tim (aka doledrummer/Prince Valium) who had created the Yahoo! Verlaines board some time earlier and was a great help in providing me with Verlaines information, photos and transcriptions in the formative years. (Special thanks to him also for sending me an original copy of Bird-Dog, and the elusive Over the Moon album.) THR expanded and mushroomed after Michael's site disappeared and I made it available to search engines. Soon afterwards Flying Nun included a link on their Verlaines page. Enthusiasm from former Verlaines bass player Mike Stoodley and fan responses led me to develop it further. The majority of the photos in the gallery were supplied by Mike.

If you have any Verlaines info or photos you would like included on the site, feel free to contact me at grimalco [at] gmail dot com.